y.

Flicker-flicker danced the lights; flicker-flicker went the tongues.
And the peaceful oriental stars looked down serenely.

Umballa remained in the palace, burning with the fires of murder.
Messenger after messenger came to report that the fugitives were still
at large. Contrary to Ahmed's expectations, Umballa did not believe
that his enemies would be foolhardy enough to seek refuge in the house
of Ramabai. The four roads leading out of the city were watched, the
colonel's bungalow and even the ruins of Bruce's camp. They were still
in the city; but where?

A king's peg, and another; and Umballa stormed, his heart filled with
Dutch courage.

Ramabai made his preparations in case the hunters entered the house.
He opened a secret door which led into a large gallery, dim and dusty
but still beautiful. Ancient armor covered the walls; armor of the
days when there existed in Delhi a peacock throne; armor inlaid with
gold and silver and turquoise, and there were jewel-incrusted swords
and daggers, a blazing helmet which one of Pundita's ancestors had worn
when the Great Khan came thundering down from China.

"Here," said Ramabai to the colonel, "you will be safe. They might
search for days without learning this room existed. There will be no
need to remain here now. Time enough when my servant gives warning."

They filed out of the gallery solemnly. Kathlyn went into the garden,
followed by Bruce.

"Do you know," said Kathlyn, "the sight of all that armor, old and
still magnificent, seemed to awaken the recollection of another age to
me?"

He wanted to take her in his arms, but he waited for her to continue
the thought.

"I wonder if, in the dim past, I was not an Amazon?"

She stretched out her arms and suddenly he caught them and drew them
down.

"I love you, Kathlyn!"

"No, no!" She struggled back from him. "Let us return to father and
Winnie," she said.

During this talk in the garden Umballa had not been inactive. He
ordered his captain of the guard to proceed at once to the house of
Ramabai and learn if they were there, or had been.

The captain salaamed and departed with his men.

As Bruce and Kathlyn reached the door leading into the house they were
met by Ramabai, whose face was grave.

"Ah, Mem-sahib, you ought not to have come out here. You might be
seen." The servant who had been watching the street burst in with the
cry: "Soldiers!"

The colonel, Winnie and Pundita appear